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Facebook appears to have it out for the developers of large family applications on Facebook. The company has created a new landing page where users can create groups specifically targeted to their family. While there is nothing unique about the end product, what is unique is the way in which Facebook is promoting the creation of new groups that are private only to family members.
Facebook has become an increasingly popular destination for families as I’ve written about a few times. The We’re related application has become one of the most popular applications on Facebook although over the past couple weeks it has appeared to suffer a slight decrease in popularity.
In terms of daily active users, the application has dropped from over 1.2 million daily active users to approximately 770,000 users. While that could have been partially due to the Facebook redesign, I’m guessing that there are other factors involved. What’s not clear is why Facebook is promoting groups for families when it’s clear that there are applications that have been built for this purpose.
One potential reason is that storing information about family networks is extremely valuable and Facebook would like to keep that data private. Facebook also is clearly using this as a way to drive new user registrations. As there has been a surge in new user registration among mothers, Facebook would like to expand that to be the entire family.
I can’t tell you how many friends of mine have complained about their mothers registering in the past couple weeks. Personally, I’m fine with having my mother on there but for younger individuals, keeping in touch with your parents on Facebook may not be perceived as “cool”. If you are interested in seeing Facebook’s family promotion, go check out the extended family group invite page.
Do you have many of your family members on the site? Do you think Facebook is a good place for families? Do you think this was a direct attack on the leading family applications?
Interesting!
Although in todays family society this could become abit complicated (remarrying, stepchildren, non relatives but share surnames)
I like the idea but still, you can’t separate the group photos into albums! the group photos are unorganized!
Might be a good way to deal with Mom. She doesn’t have to be a friend, but can still be in in your group, so in touch that way. Who get’s to be admin? The matriarch of the family? One limitation right off the bat- groups can’t insatll aps, so a family tree thing would never happen, or at least not seamlessly.
I thought of this the day they released the preview of the new layout for facebook. Their presentation showing the release showed families as one of their four groups. Seeing the growth of We’re Related I think facebook would be crazy not to focus on family. I think it is going to kill the We’re Related app, but it won’t kill Paul Allen or his team at FamilyLink.
I think it’s entirely a way to drive new user registrations. It’s most likely to have younger people create the group and draw in older, possible more lucrative demographic.
Course my family is all on facebook and has been for a while. We were all pretty stoked when my grandma got on, but my family might be a little different than some.
And for reference, when we created our family’s group, it wasn’t long after that that I saw a bunch of my family add the “We’re Related” app. If anything, drawing more families to facebook just increase We’re Related’s potential user base.
@Bryan: Ya that really gets on my nerves too. Does anybody now if there is anything new in development? It can’t be so difficult to sort photos into albums in groups…
In at least MY case, the “We’re Related” app was removed because it lacks the functionality that other dedicated sites, like http://www.geni.com, have. Why should I replicate the work that our entire family has already done on other sites?
Hmm, FaceBook would be stupid not to go after this market. However, most people will probably prefer to keep their Family community separate from their Friend community. Same reason why users keep their Colleagues on LinkedIn…
I would stick with the dedicated sites: Genoom, Kindo, Geni…
Winky - geni is a destination site, its not an app. Markets are cross polinated by lots of competition, fortunately GEDCOM takes care of duplicating efforts, look into it.
Jeffrey - Valid points. Paul Allen is too rich to be drowned, the we’re related app is basically dogsh*t. You build a tree and then you hit a ceiling.
As for the rest, family is def a classification to persuade new users, and a greater spectrum of markets, age-wise. Once there is a saturating age demographic range of facebook users, connecting with family is imminent. Remember, engagement is the key here.
Another app that is quickly climbing the charts is Family Tree, brought to social networks by Familybuilder.com. It’s more then just building your tree. Its finding new family, keeping in touch, and even offers paths to discover your DNA, allows you to earn family dollars, add family friends who you consider family, and the list goes on and on. Check it out http://apps.facebook.com/familytree
Thumbs up for facebook. Any secrets, lets keep it all in the family. =)
The We’re Related application doesn’t really offer much, and the family tree portion of it doesn’t work. Something new is needed. Hopefully Facebook, or some other entrepreneur will take advantage of the unfilled demand and create something really useful.
Thanks for this excellent posting. FamilyLink.com, Inc. is intimate with the new functionality deployed by Facebook and applauds Facebook for better accommodating families on their remarkable platform. Facebook’s recent efforts to promote groups for families has further validated our application, as well as our idea that social networks are a great place for families to connect. There has been a lot of synergy between Facebook’s demographic growth and our growth on We’re Related. Essentially, as more and more families continue to flock to Facebook, we continue to see a huge surge of traffic as a result. We don’t see Facebook’s target on families as a threat. We have plenty of unique functionality and also see that anything Facebook can do to accommodate families actually increases the growth in our application. In terms of decreased traffic, we have made the necessary adjustments to the new profile design, and our traffic is climbing upward again. Facebook has been a big help to us as we have talked with them and have learned ways to improve on our platform. We are grateful for all the work they have done to work with us to help us provide a great application for families. - Whitney McGowan, Director, Corporate Communications, FamilyLink.com, Inc.
This is the stage where I say…
Geni uses FB Connect, why not buy Geni and have them be the FB Family Tree, instead of this? Come on! Logins are already merged, posts are already crossing over… pull the trigger.
For those who do not want their parents on facebook, you can always join geni.com it allows you to create a family tree, leaves messages in a similar many to facebook, send bday reminders, etc. Our family has that it allows those who you don’t wish to connect with on facebook, to remain that way.
There is also a site I have created for this exact purpose. http://famding.com/ It has photos, messages, events, and video conferencing now. Soon to have more family specific apps!